Biological, Biomimetic, and Synthetic Membranes

​We are interested in mimicking biological processes and materials at the molecular scale to develop materials and processes that bring the exquisite specificity and functionality of biological molecules and processes to engineering scales. We are particularly intrigued by cell membrane components - lipids and membrane proteins and ways to mimic their function in synthetic systems

Given the PI's background in industrial research in large scale water and wastewater treatment, we are very interested in improving current advanced separation systems used in the process, water, energy, and biotech industries with a heavy focus on industrial and municipal water reuse and desalination with a goal of making urban water cycles more sustainable. We contend that membranes are the key technology for closing the modern urban water cycle and conduct a large fraction of our work in the area of synthetic and bioinspired membranes.

March 2020: Our Nature Materials paper made the cover! Congrats Yu-Ming and Woochul! See it here.​January 2020: Our paper summarizing a 10+ years long (unfinished) journey to create true membrane-protein based membranes has been published in Nature Materials. Over a trillion identical pores per cm2! Congrats Yu-Ming Tu, Woochul, and Tingwei. Read the paper here. This paper was highlighted in a News and Views perspective article by by Andrew Livingston and Zhiwei Liang .

December 2019: Our group had a small reuinon with our alums and were introduced to the Longhorn Santa in Austin. See pictures here.

December 2019: Our paper on the first artificial channel that can match the permeability and ion selectivity of aquaporins through a completely new mechanism published online in Nature Nanotechnology. Read it here. UT news story here. See also News and Views article in Nature Nano on this paper here. Congratulations Woochul!

December 2019: PhDs #9, #10, and #11 from our group graduate (defend) from Penn State. Congratulations to Tyler, Ratul, and Megan. Tyler is heading to Dow Chemical in Texas, Megan to Olympus in Texas, and Ratul is moving on to the Sorger Lab at the Harvard Medical School.

August 2019: Our collaborative paper with the Hickey group on a simple injection strategy to create micelles, microgels, and hydrogels from triblock copolymers was published online in Nature Communications. Read it here.

July/August 2019: As many of you probably already know, the group has now moved to UT Austin! Same awesome research, new location! So far this looks like a great place to live, work, and innovate.